Furniture nowadays is typically made of boards manufactured as plywood, particleboard, chipboard, or the like having at least one face covered with a decor layer or veneer, typically with wood grain to give the appearance of a solid piece of wood. The core is a pressed-together mass of particles or fibers or crossing layers of wood. Such boards are extremely strong, dimensionally stable, and inexpensive, but they have the disadvantage that their core materials are clearly visible at the edges.
Thus it is standard to cover the edges with a trim strip having a matching finish, normally woodgrain or veneer. Such a strip typically comprises a layer of plastic laminated with a decor layer. The strip is glued to the edge of the manufactured board and trimmed to fit.
The disadvantage of this system is that if the edges of the thus trimmed board are rounded or chamfered, the decor layer is removed and either the underlying plastic layer of the trim strip or the interior of the board is exposed. If left alone the effect is unattractive at best, and touching up this edge is a fairly difficult job that rarely will pass any meaningful scrutiny. Another disadvantage is that the trim strip is frequently subject to substantial abuse, if only from periodic cleaning, so that the decor layer can be chipped and/or worn off, revealing the core material it was intended to hide.